Legitimately ugly rule

PugJesus@lemmy.world to 196@lemmy.blahaj.zone – 113 points –
77

Mt Rushmore is a very good symbol of the US in that way. Looks impressive in marketing and media, but tacky and small IRL

i think its also a very good symbol of how the US just forgets about even their very own laws at a snap of a finger and that no nation in the world (not even the us itself) can ever trust them with anything. like for example the so called freedom of religion when we're at the Sioux Blackbhills anyway.

You have to park in a garage and walk down a narrow path lined with people trying to sell you shit. Its more like visiting a mall with aggressive salesmen than a national park. It was the worst stop I made during a cross country road trip.

They didn’t even clean up the rubble

That was intentional, the klansman who built it didn't choose a place that was culturally significant to the indigenous people by accident.

iirc they ran out of money and weren't even able to make it look the way they intended. Like they planned for it to have a 5th face or wanted to do full bodies or something like that but they couldn't get it done

They didn't bother to check what the mountain was made of. The answer was granite.

They thought they knew what it was made of, but took their assumptions for granite

Are you saying granite? It's granted, with a D. Take things for granted. Did you actually think it was... Jesus Christ Rick, what are you a boulder, a rock person? How long have you been saying that wrong?

What, you can erase my memories?

It's a common rock pun, saying granite instead of granted.

Even as a young child I was very disappointed seeing it in person. Very underwhelming. The only cool part I thought was looking through the binocular things and spying on other tourists. I was an odd kid whatever

Same thing with seeing the Mona Lisa in person. It's a very small painting against the a far wall in a special room, and that room is packed shoulder-to-shoulder, asshole-to-elbow shithead tourists. Kinda cool to see it in person I guess, but not really worth the effort

The only cool part I thought was looking through the binocular things and spying on other tourists. I was an odd kid whatever

Yes, that is indeed extremely strange behavior. I don't believe that it has ever been reported before /s

It should be given back to the natives, with reparations. I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to remove the faces and attempt to restore it.

We'll start by giving them back your house

Hey, guess what - wanting a historical wrong to be corrected by having a polity live up to its treaty obligations, however belatedly, by ceding a piece of land on which a rather ugly monument exists on and telling the original owners 'do what you want with it' is not the equivalent of volunteering for ethnic cleansing.

Might be a cool opportunity to build cohesion even. What if we (in consult with the Lakota whose land it annually is) build in a few cool people from other tribes too (e.g. chief Seattle, and others from all over the country). That could make it feel more like a monument to all of us.

Generally not a fan of defacing nature though. There's a joke in there somewhere but it's too early.

If that's what it takes to make reparations happen I'll gladly give mine. Thankfully that isn't what reparations would require so you just look like a racist asshole.

Another example of why downvotes are sometimes necessary. All they'll care about is the six people that agreed with them

We should give back that to the natives, alongside with some TNT in case they want those faces to go.

Looks like a random Minecraft structure bodged into the land

When I first saw the Statue of Liberty I was genuinely amazed at how small it was 😂

It's not that small considering it was both free and had to be taken apart to fit on a single ship lol

What did you expect? I never saw it in person but looking at Wikipedia, that's a large-ass statue.

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but statues of real people are cringe… and Mount Rushmore is basically maximum cringe by that measure.

Reminded me of this song (which is german) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC872j2-PDw

Im gonna try translating the most relevant section:

Get the sledgehammer out, they built us a monument and every idiot knows that this destroys all love/charm. I will hire the worst sprayers(graffiti artists) of the city so that they may further deface the leftover rubble the same night.

TBF it was supposed to be bigger.

Wait. You're telling me they didn't even fucking finish it and people are still mad about the idea of losing it?

They didn't even clean up the blasted off rock underneath it.

Ran out of money. It would have been cleaned when they did the bodies, but instead they finished the faces and said “better than nothing”.

Sucks that they were such racists that did this.

I just went to the black hills area and I MUCH preferred the Crazy Horse memorial. If you hate Rushmore then I think you would love it too. It actually means something, looks cooler, and isn't funded by the government.

I find it interesting that nobody else had mentioned it.

I don't mind the Feds funding art. I only mind them funding shitty art that violates local customs and treaties with sovereign tribes. Like, zero redeeming qualities here with Rushmore.

I thought they zoomed in on the faces so you could see them

woooow

How have I never seen this? It looks so sad :(

Been there, it is legit underwhelming.

Me too. I went there when I was 10 or 11, and as a child all I noticed was how incongruous it was with everything. I wasn't awed by it, and my parents seemed sort of put out with how I didn't care for it compared to my sisters.

I'd like to pretend that's some kind of deep political sentiment, but really I think it's just aesthetically displeasing if you don't have a thing for monuments

I dunno, I have a thing for monuments and I still find it aesthetically displeasing. It's pretty ugly.

Adults get weird when the indoctrinating they and society put so much effort into doesn't take hold. So much so, that they find some mental illness like Autism to label the child with.

I remember one of the massive air compressors they had on display there better than the monument itself...

Though I am a giant nerd for that sort of thing so it might just be me

I've seen them before and they are ugly. None of them would have wanted their face there so who is actually being honored?

Teddy did. That's why his face is included

While Teddy was the self-aggrandizing type who probably wouldn't have objected to having his face carved into a mountain, Rushmore wasn't even proposed until long after Teddy's political career was over.

I dunno, Theodore was also a reknowned appreciator of natural beauty, so I could see it going either way.

Yes, he protected land like this from developers. He's the reason we have national parks. No way he would have approved this.